At last night’s Academy Awards, indies were king. Seven of the major awards, including Best Picture, were won by independent films; in the last 30 years, a non-studio film has received the Best Picture Oscar 19 times (an independent film, as defined by Elizabeth Wolfe of the Independent Film & Television Alliance, is one which “is financed primarily from sources outside the six major US studios”). The night’s big winner was The Weinstein Company’s The King’s Speech, which won awards for Best Film, Best Director (Tom Hooper), Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler) and Best Actor (Colin Firth). Fellow indie The Fighter garnered acting awards for Christian Bale and Melissa Leo, and the award for Best Foreign Language Film went to Denmark’s In a Better World.
For more information visit oscars.go.com/ and the Independent Film & Television Alliance (www.ifta-online.org/).
The complete list of winners is below:
Best Picture: The King’s Speech
Best Lead Actor: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
Best Lead Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler, The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
Best Animated Feature Film: Toy Story 3
Best Foreign Language Film: In a Better World, Susanne Bier
Best Cinematography: Wally Pfister, Inception
Best Editing: Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter, The Social Network
Best Art Direction: Robert Stromberg and Karen O’Hara, Alice in Wonderland
Best Costume Design: Colleen Atwood, Alice in Wonderland
Best Makeup: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey, The Wolfman
Best Score: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross The Social Network
Best Original Song: “We Belong Together” (Randy Newman), Toy Story 3
Best Sound Mixing: Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick, Inception
Best Sound Editing: Richard King, Inception
Best Visual Effects: Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley, Pete Bebb and Paul J. Franklin, Inception
Best Documentary: Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Best Documetary Short: Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Best Animated Short: The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Best Live Action Short: God of Love, Luke Matheny